In the Midst of Shadows
by skyfireflight16
Summary: A mysterious girl with metahuman abilities comes to Jump City, and is labeled a criminal seemingly overnight. But everything is not as it seems. Who is she really? What is her connection to Slade? And most importantly, can she be trusted?
1. Preface

**Hey guys! Yeah, I know, I really should be working on my other story, but I was in the mood and just had to get this started.**

**This is the full-multiple-chapter companion story to my two-shot "Comfort". You can take a look at that for some extra info.**

**And for those of you who like long chapters, don't worry, they're coming; this is just the front page, to kind of set the stage for the rest of the story. I know it's from the Lord of the Rings movie, but I thought it fit.**

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Preface

_Home is behind, the world ahead_

_And there are many paths to tread_

_Through shadow_

_To the edge of night_

_Until the stars are all alight_

_Mist and Shadow_

_Cloud and Shade_

_All shall fade_

_All shall…fade_


	2. Prologue 1: Chasing Fire

**And here's the first chapter! If it ends up too short, I apologize in advance. There'll be longer chapters, trust me. **

**This takes place after the "Apprentice" episodes and before "Terra". Don't forget to review, please!**

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Prologue 1: _Chasing Fire_

Five teenagers were gathered around a large screen, gazing at it intently.

_Newscast: A criminal has escaped Jump City prison. (__*****__A picture of a girl is shown on the screen__*****)__ The prison break, which happened last night only a few hours after dark, has left the authorities baffled. The inmate, a young girl, was found not to be in her locked cell, with no indication of how she may have gotten out. She was last seen heading into the main city. _

_The girl, whose name and origins are not known, was incarcerated earlier this week by Jump City police. Reasons for the arrest are as of now unclear, however the police department tells us that the girl appears to have metahuman abilities and is considered a threat to the city that must be contained as soon as possible. The city's inhabitants are asked to remain calm and alert, and if the girl is seen, to notify the authorities immediately. _

_This is Jump City, channel 10 news. Back to you, Frank._

_Thank you, Lindy. The video game industry's sales are at a record high, with the release of Ultra – _

Robin switched off the TV.

"Dude! I wanted to hear about the new video game!" Beast Boy protested, waving his arms in the air.

"Sorry, Beast Boy. We have more important things to worry about," Robin replied, his voice serious.

"Yeah, like how that girl got out of prison so fast," said Cyborg, scratching is head. "Seriously, she was only locked up, like, two days ago."

"It might have something to do with her powers." Raven suggested.

"Or with Slade." Intoned Robin.

"That is the girl believed to be affiliated with Slade, yes?" Starfire questioned.

"We think so, Star." Robin answered. "It would explain the prison break. And the fact that we've never seen her before now."

"You think Slade's found himself a new apprentice…." Raven said, her face thoughtful as she understood what Robin was getting at. "But that doesn't explain how she got here in the first place."

Robin nodded. "We need to figure out who she is and what her powers are. And there's only one way to find out."

"The police are already spread out all over looking for her," informed Cyborg. "If we're going to interrogate her, we'll have to go search for her ourselves."

"Before she does something serious." Raven agreed.

Beast Boy scrunched up his face and crossed his arms. "Yeah, if only we knew where to look."

_BEEP! – BEEP! – BEEP! – BEEP!_

* * *

The alarm suddenly blared to life, red lights in the room flashing. The TV screen switched on, zooming in on the point of interest. A young girl, the same one whose face was shown on the news just moments before, was seen ducking out of a building and hurrying into an alleyway. Apparently someone in the building had spotted her and notified the police.

"There's our answer." Robin said. "Let's go!"

They were at the location in minutes. The girl was crouched against the wall in the middle of the alleyway, obviously trying to use the shadows in a futile attempt to keep hidden. The five teens blocked the entrance of the alleyway, cutting off her escape.

Or so they thought.

Cyborg turned on his shoulder light and advanced a little ways into the alleyway, accidently kicking an empty can with his toes. The can skittered forward into the alleyway and passed in front of the girl in her "hiding place". She jumped up, startled, then slowly turned to face the direction it came from. Cyborg's light shined on the girl, and her eyes widened at the sight of the five superheroes. She took a faltering step backwards, her fear obvious.

Robin was the first to act, bringing out his staff. Starfire and Raven followed suit, their hands glowing with their respective energies. "You're coming with us." Cyborg informed the girl in front of him. "Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

The girl eyed the Cyborg and the others for a moment, before making her answer clear. In a flash, she bent her knees and catapulted into the air, landing on the roof of a building at a run.

"Titan's, go!" Robin cried. The team burst in to action.

Raven came up through the roof of the building from a black portal, stopping the girl in her tracks. "Going somewhere?" she asked, her eyes glowing under her hood, and her hands surrounded with dark energy. The girl gasped and spun around, only to see Starfire behind her, a starbolt at the ready. The girl then flew upwards from between the two titans, then levelled out, flying away at an incredible speed. Raven and Starfire took off after her, Starfire shooting her starbolts, which the girl easily dodged.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy came after the girl in the form of a falcon, flapping his wings feverishly, trying to catch up with her. The chase certainly wasn't easy. Besides going extremely fast, the girl did not fly in a straight path, but zigzagged all over the place trying to lose the other girls, changing direction every few seconds, up and down and side to side, with a few loop-de-loops thrown in – a way that much reminded Beast Boy of a fly.

Which gave him an idea. The girl was starting to slow down a fraction, so this made his job easier. As soon as he deemed himself close enough, he turned into a fly. Now able to follow her random movements, while at the same time go unnoticed, Beast Boy buzzed after her much more easily. He followed her as she flew upwards, then to the right, then down and to the left, then up again, dodging a flurry of starbolts and random objects encased in black energy. Soon enough he was flying directly on top of her; he morphed into a monkey and landed on her back.

The girl cried out in surprised as the green chimpanzee wrapped its arms around her. She flew lower, struggling to free herself from his grasp. Judging her low enough to the ground to not be seriously hurt in a fall, Beast Boy shifted into a small bear. Rapidly losing altitude with the added weight, the girl spun herself like a sideways top, in a last-ditch effort to get the green boy off of her.

It worked. Not only did the girl's spinning make it really hard to hold on, but her skin was getting really, really, _really_ hot. Beast Boy yelped and let go, turning into a hummingbird in midair before he hit the ground. "Dude…." He muttered to himself.

Although Beast Boy's attempt hadn't gotten the intended result, it wasn't a complete failure. The distraction gave Starfire and Raven a chance to close in in the girl, giving them a great opening to land a strike. The Tamaranian fired a starbolt at the girl, and this time it hit. She yelped as she was knocked out of the air, turning her body in a somersault to slow her descent. The girl landed knees-to-sidewalk, emitting a soft groan.

But she didn't stay there.

In a split second she was on her feet again, racing along the sidewalk until she could duck into another dark alleyway. This particular alleyway was connected to several other alleyways, with many twists and turns and dead ends. Landing at the narrow pathway's entrance, Starfire and Raven paused for a moment and looked at each other.

"We have lost her?"

"It seems like it." Raven replied, as they continued into the alleyway.

Not quite.

While Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire were following the girl in the air, Cyborg and Robin were trailing after them on the ground, keeping up with the location of their three comrades via communicator. So when the girl ran into the alleyway-maze with Starfire and Raven on her tail, Robin and Cyborg were already there.

Robin and Cyborg crouched against a wall at the opening of an alleyway, and spotted the girl as she ran past them. The two boys looked at each other and nodded in an unspoken agreement. As soundlessly as they could, they turned down the direction the girl had fled and trailed after her. They followed her around another corner, to an alleyway that exited back out into the open. The girl, unaware of Cyborg and Robin behind her, let out a breath and stopped beside a trash bin, resting her hands on her knees for a moment.

Robin nodded to Cyborg, and he powered up is sonic canon and aimed. The girl straightened barely a second later, but only took two steps before she was blasted with blue energy from Cyborg's canon. The blast knocked her sidelong against the trash bin, and she slid to the ground, grunting both at the impact and in surprise.

Robin slid past her to block the other exit, and the other three teens appeared. Beast Boy in flew and morphed back in human form beside Robin, blocking the entrance alongside the older teen. Raven and Starfire hovered above the alleyway, ready in case the girl tried to escape by flight.

"You're not getting away from us that easily," Robin declared. "We have you surrounded."

The girl got up and glanced around nervously, taking in the girls above her and the two boys in front of her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Cyborg blocking her only other escape route. "I'd give it up, if I were you." He said, aiming his cannon at her.

For a moment, she just stood there, surveying the situation. Then, in a flurry of movement, the girl bolted toward Robin and Beast Boy, attempting to slip around them in the small space their lean bodies left unguarded. But she didn't get that far.

With lightning reflexes, Robin blocked her and grabbed her arm, using the girl's moment against her to flip her onto her back. He then dropped over her on his hands and knees; he pinned her shoulder down with one hand, and whipped out his staff and pressed it against her collarbone, effectively restraining her.

That all happened in two seconds.

"So you insist on doing it the hard way." The boy growled. The girl looked up at him with wide, fearful eyes, both teens breathing heavily.

Cyborg deactivated his cannon, and Starfire and Raven came back down into the alleyway. Robin lifted his head to address his team members. As his gaze was now elsewhere, the boy leader didn't notice the eyes of the girl underneath him flash fire-orange.

"Raven," he began, "could you ta – _ow!_"

What happened next was nothing but a blur of motion.

Robin jerked back from his hold on the girl, as searing heat radiated from her skin. Taking advantage of this, the girl used her arms to fling herself forward, ramming Robin in the stomach with her knees; the boy ended up being knocked backward and slammed onto his back, the girl on top of him, with her knees pressed into his stomach. Before any of the others realized what was happening, the girl rolled off Robin and disappeared.

Robin picked himself up, breathing hard. The other four teens hurried out of the alleyway, looking around for any sign of where the mysterious girl had gone.

There was none. She had completely vanished, leaving a crew of bewildered heroes behind.

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**I WAS going to make this chapter longer, but I thought maybe I'd leave this chapter like it is, and add the last part of it to the second chapter.**

**Tell me if you guys would like me to make this chapter longer. I might do it anyway, but I really want to hear your opinion! **

'**Til next time! Signed, **Skyfire


	3. Prologue 1: Chasing Fire - Part 2

Prologue 1: _Chasing Fire_ - Part 2

"Dude, where'd she go?" asked Beast Boy, voicing everyone's thoughts.

Robin came onto the sidewalk with his friends, rubbing his aching hand. "I don't know." He said, lifting his hand up to examine it. "But I think…she burned me."

"Burned you?" repeated Cyborg. "How'd she do that?" As he was speaking, Starfire and Raven came over and looked at Robin's hand. Curiously enough, it was unmarred.

_Weird._

Beast Boy thought for a second, then piped up. "She did that to me, too, when we were in the air. I was hanging on to her, but then she got _way_ hot, and I had to let go. But it didn't leave any marks, either." He held up his arms in proof.

"Maybe Slade's given her a weapon." Raven offered. She looked up from Robin's hand. "Or maybe it's part of her powers..?"

"And how did she vanish so quickly?" came Starfire's soft voice. "Perhaps teleportation?"

"If she could teleport, I think she'd've done that at the beginning of all this." Raven said.

Robin dropped his hand and looked up at the sky, which was turning pink and purple with the oncoming sunset. "There's only one way to find out. We need to keep looking. Cyborg, Raven, are you guys getting anything?"

Cyborg checked the scanners on his arm. "She's too far away now, man. My sensors are picking up squat." The Cyber-teen turned to Raven. The cloaked girl closed her eyes and held her fingers to her head for a moment.

"I can sense her," she answered, "but it's very faint. I can't put an exact location on it; she's still somewhere in the city."

The group nodded at the information. Robin spoke up. "Alright, team, split up. We have a better chance of finding this girl if we cover more ground."

"And we'll need to hurry." Cyborg said. "The sun's almost down and –."

"And I'm gonna miss the season premiere of _Clash of the Planets_!" Beast Boy cut in whiningly, as if his TV show was the most important thing in the world.

Raven gave the green boy a sideways look. "We just need to get to her before the police do, _and _before she does anything dangerous."

"Perhaps she isn't as dangerous as we believe." Starfire offered. "During the pursuit, she seemed quite scared."

"Well, it was all five of us against the one of her," Raven answered. "And if she _is_ with Slade, who knows what he's told her about us. It's not exactly a surprise she wouldn't want to get caught."

"Well, then, what are we standing around here waiting for?" Cyborg said. "Let's get a move on."

With that, the teen titans split up and began their hunt around the city.

Raven and Starfire took to the air in the west and east, respectively, scanning the city's skyline and peering down into alleyways. Beast Boy went to the south, alternating between a bloodhound and a bird, with Cyborg tagging along close by. Robing went north, ducking into building and alleyways, and climbing up onto roof tops. As they searched, they kept constant tabs on each other through their communicators.

"Beast Boy to Robin. Any luck?"

"Nothing in the business district. How about you and Cyborg?"

"Cyborg here. I'm not picking up anything either."

"And I am not seeing anything in the area of residences. Raven?"

"The same, Star. Her presence seems to be getting stronger on and off, but I still can't pinpoint it."

They kept on like that for several hours, looking high and low throughout the city for the mysterious girl. But there was still no sign of her.

* * *

It was now night. The sky was cloudless, unusual for that time of year, and stars shone done on the city like thousands of fireflies, all oblivious to the happening below them.

Meanwhile, the five superhero teenagers had practically exhausted themselves in their search, having scoured more than three quarters of the city, often looping back to where they had looked before in the chance that the elusive metahuman had come to that location while they had been gone.

"Alright, titans," Robin's voice came over the communicator. "Let's regroup."

"Well, it's about time!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "My arms are tired, and my nose is all sniffed out."

"Starfire and I are at the rundown apartments on Vine Avenue," came Raven's voice. "It's pretty close to where the rest of you are. And we think we may have found something."

"Got you, Rae," Cyborg answered. "We'll meet you there."

The boys found Starfire and Raven in a back alley between two rundown apartment buildings. Shadows filled the place, and small rodents scurried to and fro from the walls and trash bins.

"Okay, so what'd you find?" Robin asked. The sudden sound of a trash bin lid slamming shut echoed across the brick walls, followed by the squeal of a mouse. Starfire squealed, and Cyborg jumped, signing his shoulder light around.

"Can we make this quick?" he asked. "This place is giving me the creeps."

"Not to mention I missed the season premiere of _Clash of the Planets_." Beast Boy grumbled, crossing his arms.

"You're _still _thinking about that?" Cyborg demanded, annoyed.

"Alright." Robin cut in, stopping their argument. He turned to the girls. "What'd you find?" He repeated.

Raven pointed to the brick wall behind her, and Cyborg shone his light in that direction, revealing what the girl was referring to. A few long, thick, black scorch marks were seared across the wall, all the same distance from each other, resembling claw marks of some giant creature. "We found some burn marks here." She explained. "They're very recent, too recent to have been a natural fire and be put out."

"And the pattern is most strange." Starfire continued Raven's line of thought. "It is too…perfect. A normal fire would not leave marks in this way." Both girls turned their heads toward Beast Boy and Robin. "Friend Robin and Friend Beast Boy, did you both not say that you felt the girl burn you?"

"Yeah, but she didn't leave any marks." Cyborg said. The boys turned thoughtful as they realized what the girls were getting at. He surveyed the marks along the wall. "You think she could have make those? We aren't even sure what her powers _are _yet."

"No," Robin agreed, "but it's the only lead we've got. Let's look around some more, and –."

Raven suddenly gasped and whirled around to face the exit.

"Raven, what is it?" Robin asked, all of them now alert.

"She's here."

"Here? Like _here_, here?" Beast Boy asked. He turned toward Cyborg. The Cyber-teen activated his scanner.

"I'm picking up her heartbeat. Raven's right, the girl's only a couple of buildings down, in that direction." He pointed to the left, indicating the way they should go. The rest of the group nodded in acknowledgment. The teens wasted no time. Hurriedly they ran (or flew) to where Raven and Cyborg sensed the girl was, hoping to get there before she started moving again. Thankfully, though, the girl's location remained the same.

The team emerged from the shadowed back streets into a clearing in the middle of the complex, which was bordered by four brick apartment buildings, one on each side, making it a sort-of square, about 400 feet in perimeter. They all looked around for a second and took in their surroundings. The clearing needed some serious _cleaning. _The place was just full of stuff; bicycle and car parts, scrap metal, trash, wooden planks, and cardboard boxes looked like they were just tossed there carelessly, thrown into large piles scattered all over the place.

They had been led to a junkyard.

The kids looked at each other, most of them having the same look on their faces. Seriously? They were supposed to find one girl in all that mess? Where the heck would they even start? And why would a young villain hide here, in all places?

It was Starfire who voiced that last thought. "Why would she choose such a place to hide?"

"Yeah," said Cyborg, "wouldn't she head back to Slade? Even if she didn't, I'm sure she'd have other, better, places to go." His voice was slightly concerned, suspicious.

The answer came from Robin, as determined as ever. "I don't know why, but right now it doesn't matter. We can figure that out later. For now we just have to find her; that's the important thing…." His voice started out hard, but then trailed off has he looked around, his eyes flitting back and forth as he surveyed the massive heaps of objects that littered junkyard. This was quite a task before them. While Cyborg's scanner told them that the girl was still in the same general location, it didn't tell them _exactly_ where she was.

"How are we supposed to find her in all this mess?" Beast Boy demanded, throwing his hands slightly up in the air in exasperation. "Where are we even going to start? We've been out here for _hours_, and now _this_? How long is this going to take?" Under normal circumstances, the young green shape-shifter wouldn't have complained so much, but their lengthy, mostly goose-chasing search had left him somewhat irritable – and the fact that this girl had ruined his TV plans just added to his frustration. Just who did she think she was, coming barging into Jump City, disturbing the peace, and sending them on this wild chase? "This is too much trouble! I'm tired, and –."

Raven silenced the boy's complaints with a look and a hand placed softly on his shoulder. "_I _know where she is." She said. Greatly relieved, the other members of the group nodded in acknowledgement and followed Raven as she wordlessly swept past them, leading them toward the center of the clearing. They quickly weaved through the piles of junk, Starfire flying above them, while Raven, for some unknown reason, chose to remain on the ground.

Upon reaching their destination, Raven stopped abruptly. She pointed with an index finger and mouthed '_she's in there.' _ In the center of the junkyard, where Raven's finger had indicated, was a much smaller pile of junk, consisting mostly of vehicle part and scrap metal, with a few wooden boards here and there. The blue-cloaked girl soundlessly flew off the ground and landed on top off the pile. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." She murmured. Her eyes glowed simmering white, and black energy encased the top layers of junk in front of her. She lifted them off of the pile, moved them to her right side, and let them clatter down the other side; silence wasn't important now.

Raven stepped closer and looked into the hole, which she had only partially created, in the center of the pile. Peering up at her, eyes wide and whole body rigid, was the girl they had been looking for, making no motion to flee. Finally, after all that chasing, they had found her, cornered her once again.

Yet, as they had learned from their previous encounters, this was no indication that it would stay that way. Yes, they had found her.

But now they had to catch her.

* * *

**Here's the second part to the prologue. I was going to tack it on to the 1st part, but for now this is easier. There'll be a third part, after which I'll just combine all three into one chapter. **

** As always, reviews are welcome!**

** Signed, **Skyfire


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